Greif (NYSE:GEF) Shares Gap Up to $60.73

Greif, Inc. (NYSE:GEF)’s share price gapped up before the market opened on Monday . The stock had previously closed at $60.73, but opened at $63.22. Greif shares last traded at $61.79, with a volume of 19,514 shares traded.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities analysts have weighed in on the company. Truist Financial initiated coverage on Greif in a research note on Thursday, April 18th. They set a “hold” rating and a $71.00 price objective on the stock. Bank of America raised shares of Greif from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their price target for the company from $76.00 to $77.00 in a research report on Monday. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price target on shares of Greif from $78.00 to $80.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, June 7th. Finally, StockNews.com lowered shares of Greif from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, June 7th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Greif presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $80.50.

Greif Trading Up 1.3 %

The stock has a market capitalization of $2.94 billion, a PE ratio of 13.42, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.43 and a beta of 0.89. The company has a current ratio of 1.57, a quick ratio of 1.17 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.38. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $63.07 and a 200-day moving average price of $64.10.

Greif (NYSE:GEF) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, June 5th. The industrial products company reported $0.82 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.77 by $0.05. The business had revenue of $1.37 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.30 billion. Greif had a net margin of 5.17% and a return on equity of 15.57%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 4.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $1.77 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Greif, Inc. will post 4.24 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Greif Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, July 1st. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, June 18th will be issued a dividend of $0.52 per share. This represents a $2.08 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.33%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, June 18th. Greif’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 44.73%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Greif

In other news, SVP Timothy Bergwall sold 2,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, March 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $65.36, for a total transaction of $130,720.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 58,392 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,816,501.12. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In other Greif news, VP Gary R. Martz acquired 4,000 shares of Greif stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, April 4th. The stock was acquired at an average cost of $68.98 per share, for a total transaction of $275,920.00. Following the purchase, the vice president now owns 17,018 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,173,901.64. The acquisition was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, SVP Timothy Bergwall sold 2,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, March 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $65.36, for a total value of $130,720.00. Following the sale, the senior vice president now owns 58,392 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,816,501.12. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have bought a total of 7,732 shares of company stock worth $532,020 over the last ninety days. 3.07% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of Greif

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in GEF. Knights of Columbus Asset Advisors LLC grew its stake in Greif by 94.6% during the fourth quarter. Knights of Columbus Asset Advisors LLC now owns 78,654 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $5,159,000 after acquiring an additional 38,229 shares in the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. purchased a new position in shares of Greif during the 4th quarter valued at $2,943,000. Gotham Asset Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Greif by 8.1% in the third quarter. Gotham Asset Management LLC now owns 7,054 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $471,000 after purchasing an additional 530 shares during the period. AQR Capital Management LLC raised its position in shares of Greif by 6.4% in the third quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 402,383 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $26,883,000 after buying an additional 24,230 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Teachers Retirement System of The State of Kentucky boosted its stake in Greif by 82.8% during the third quarter. Teachers Retirement System of The State of Kentucky now owns 9,432 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $630,000 after buying an additional 4,273 shares during the period. 45.74% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

About Greif

Greif, Inc engages in the production and sale of industrial packaging products and services worldwide. The company operates through Global Industrial Packaging; Paper Packaging & Services; and Land Management segments. The Global Industrial Packaging segment produces and sells industrial packaging products, including steel, fiber, and plastic drums; rigid and flexible intermediate bulk containers; closure systems for industrial packaging products; transit protection products; water bottles, and remanufactured and reconditioned industrial containers; and various services, such as container life cycle management, filling, logistics, warehousing, and other packaging services to chemicals, paints and pigments, food and beverage, petroleum, industrial coatings, agriculture, pharmaceuticals, mineral product, and other industries.